I haven't been active on the forums for a while, so I thought I'd post something incase anyone missed me hehe (not bloody likely)...

As soon as I get the dosh, i've decided to do the serpentine belt conversion NO MATTER WHAT THE COST!!! I've pretty much excepted the fact that i'll need to get the a new power steering pump, air con pump, water pump, tensioners, harmonic balancer, alternator bracket, timing cover, thermofans and anything else i've missed other than the alternator (which is whole reason i'm doing this) :/ I look at my system now and pretty much tell myself that it was a waste of money unless I fixed this weak link which is the stupid EA alternator... In the future it will also allow me to get an even bigger alternator than the EF one if need be...

I've also got a dual battery system on layby and will be in by the next meet, and will be perfect as it's at the drive ins :)

By the end my electrical system will be an absolute power house, if this doesn't drastically iprove my voltage drop, I will BURN my car...... with myself in it!

I should be able to tough it out for the whole movie with the two amps running at a reasonable volume. I haven't yet had the guts to keep it going for the whole movie with the current single battery, usually start my car halfway through just to be safe :) Anyone here know how low the voltage can drop before your at risk of need a jump start? Two optima yellow tops will be about the equivalent of 4 stock batteries....

LTDHO, the current belts on the EA are way too thin to have any proper grip on the EF alternator due to the increased load, tried it already with the EA belts and it screeched like hell everytime more power was asked of it, despite my best efforts to tension it, and ended up replacing the belts twice :( The dual battery system is fairly simple, both batteries hook up to an isolator which controls which battery it will be drawing power from, once it feels more resistance from one battery it'll switch to the auxilary battery. Hmm dual alternators would be mad but my system does not really need something that drastic at the moment, it'll be much easier, and most likely cheaper to get a larger alternator instead. Dual alternators require mounting brackets to be made up and then needs to be checked out by an engineer to get the thumbs up.

donuts2003, I would love to, but I just got the head recoed and it'd be a shame to have wasted that money, then to just throw it away. It's true that with all the money I've spent on fixing this engine in the past 3 years I've had the car I could have very well bought an EF engine, but I guess those are the risks when modding an old car like an EA. For now at least, I'd like to see if I can get this done, not only for me, but to help anyone else out there that is looking at doing the same thing :)

Just get a second hand EFII/EL motor from the Trading Post and stick that in. At least that way you can join the MPI club and have everything you wanted + more for just a bit over the price of your original plans.

Just get a second hand EFII/EL motor from the Trading Post and stick that in. At least that way you can join the MPI club and have everything you wanted + more for just a bit over the price of your original plans.

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